Workforce planning

A hiring plan is an org design decision spread over twelve months and a large financial commitment made in small pieces. It deserves the scrutiny of both.

Plan capability, not headcount

Headcount is an input. Start from what the organization must be able to do that it currently cannot, then work out what closes the gap — hiring, developing existing people, contracting, or not doing the work.

The shape follows from people:org-design; this is about sequencing and quantity over time, funded against finance:budgeting-and-forecasting on fully loaded cost rather than salary. Salary is typically well under the true cost, and plans built on it are wrong by a wide and consistent margin.

Sequence matters more than total

Twelve hires in a year is not one number; it is twelve dated decisions with dependencies.